DATvsdraftWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: DAT is a abbrev, draft is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“DAT” is an abbrev and “draft” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,524
“DAT” frequency rank
#36,264
“draft” frequency rank
42788
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature DAT draft
Definition Abkürzung für „digital audio tape“ (Digitales Audio Tonband) 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs draften

Letter map: DAT vs draft

Shared letters muted; letters that set DAT and draft apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch
DAT
5 ch
draft

Role in the sentence - DAT and draft

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: DAT is anabbrev and draftaverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42788, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

DAT is recorded at frequency rank #6,524, classified as anabbrev, pronounced […]. draft is at rank #36,264, tagged as averb, pronounced [dʁaːft].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 42788, this pair ranks #1,438,427 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of DAT vs draft

Shared letters: adt. Private to "DAT": -. Private to "draft": fr.

"DAT" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "draft" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • draftdarft · ddraft · drafft · draftt · dratf · drfat · drraft · rdaft

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "DAT" and "draft" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "DAT" is an abbrev and "draft" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "DAT" or "draft" show up more?
"DAT" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,524 in our German list, against #36,264 for "draft". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "DAT" vs "draft" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "DAT" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "draft" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,438,427 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "DAT" and "draft" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "draft vs draw". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #1,438,427 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list